WHEN Siberian conditions hit Britain this time last year everyone was caught out, including the weathermen.

Global warming, we had been told, meant the snowy conditions we remember from our childhoods would be just that: memories.

But following the bitter cold of the past two winters those predictions are beginning to look rather wide of the mark. now a new book, Frozen Britain by meteorologists Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson, suggests that rather than facing milder winters we could be in for some more Arctic big freezes.

Certainly, despite everything that the global-warming lobby has suggested, our climate may be dictated by more than just man- made toxins pumped into the atmosphere. One of the key indicators – which has fallen out of favour with the computer-obsessed meteorologists of today – is the sun.

According to McCaskill and Hudson the clues to our future weather may lie with the sun.

“In the past few years it has been behaving very oddly,” Hudson says.

In the past, when there have been periods of relative inactivity on the surface of the sun they have been followed by years of cold winters.

Research published recently showed that in the early 1800s when activity on the sun was remarkably low for many years there was a dramatic change in the weather.

SOMERSET -— Apparently 'tis not the season for those who are fond of snowy weather.

On Thursday AccuWeather released an updated winter outlook that backs off the idea that December will get the winter off to a snowy start.

"That's out the window," Paul Pastelok, chief long-range forecaster, said in a written release.

Snowfall this season is likely to be near to below normal in the mid-Atlantic region, with temperatures averaging above normal. Pastelok sees a season in which winter storms tend to cut toward the Great Lakes rather than blow up off the East Coast. That would keep the region on the warm side of storms.

Meteorologist Meghan Evans said the worst snow and cold will be in the Midwest and interior Northwest. Chicago and Minneapolis will lie in the heart of this zone.

Canadians may have to wait longer for the full, frigid effects of winter this year but chilly weather is still on its way, an Environment Canada climatologist has warned.

"We've never cancelled winter in this country. We're not going to do it this year," David Phillips told CTV News Channel on Thursday.

When winter finally blankets Canada, Phillips said colder-than-usual weather is expected courtesy of a natural phenomenon known as "La Nina."

Known as the opposite of El Ninos, La Nina is characterized by chillier sea surface temperatures in the Pacific. Phillips said those conditions will result in an extra-heavy dose of winter snow for Canada.

"There's a choreography that exists between what the ocean temperatures are like and the air above it," Phillips told CTVNews.ca. "Ultimately, La Nina tends to force Arctic air down deeper into the heart of North America

At least eight people have been killed and nearly three million homes left without power after a rare early season snowstorm hit the east coast of the US.

Governors declared states of emergency in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York as the freak winter storm dumped record-breaking levels of snow as it churned from the Mid-Atlantic to New England.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said the state had experienced the largest number of power outages in its history and emergency centres were opened in most cities

Click source for MUST SEE VIDEO LINK from SkyNews. Look out for the opening snow shower on the White House.

A rare October Nor’easter that is forecast to hit at least 10 states from North Carolina to Maine starting Saturday morning has the potential to be the biggest October storm in New York City history, according to AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Paul Walker.

“The record for snow in October for New York City is .8 inches set on Oct. 30, 1925,” said Walker. “This has the possibility to beat that.”

Inland communities will bear the brunt of the storm with heavy wet snow forecast to fall starting in the afternoon from Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Areas near Springfield, Mass., could see as much as 10 inches of snow.

Major cities up and down the coast can expect to see a chilly rain on Saturday morning that changes to snow in the evening.

Predicted winter temperature pattern for the U.S. based on La Nina winter conditions. Warm weather is likely across the Southern Plains; chilly temperatures can be expected along the West Coast and along the northern states into the Great Lakes. Credit: NOAA/NWS

On Thursday, October 20, 2011, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its weather outlook for the period December 2011 through February 2012 (meteorological winter). Meteorological seasons begin on the first day of the month in which astronomical winter begins.

Overall, it’s an easy to understand forecast. La Nina hasn’t gone away and is, in fact, going to strengthen a bit. This keeps the southern jet stream across the U.S. weaker than might otherwise be expected. It is also linked to a stronger western U.S. upper level ridge and a deeper trough in the region from the Mississippi Valley to the Appalachians.

A SECRET weather bureau report predicting another summer of wild weather will force the Queensland Government to open the floodgates on major dams.

The dramatic new forecast delivered last Wednesday, but kept under wraps will prompt the Government to reverse measures to keep the dams close to full before the wet season.

The Bureau of Meteorology has provided the federal and Queensland governments with the latest La Nina data, which shows the chances of extreme rainfall have doubled in recent weeks.

Queensland Police has also been briefed by the forecasters. Premier Anna Bligh announced on September 30 that Wivenhoe and North Pine would not be drained hoping that Queensland would not be hit hard again.

NOAA released their 2011-2012 winter outlook today, and by the looks of it, their forecast calls for more of the same for many parts of the country as La Nina is expected to influence weather patterns across the United States for the second winter in a row. The Arctic Oscillation will play the wild card that could produce dramatic temperature swings across the lower 48 this winter.

Here is what NOAA released earlier today for the coming winter:

ABNORMALLY COLD OCEAN SURFACE TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EQUATORIAL PACIFIC, AN INCREASE IN BELOW-AVERAGE SUBSURFACE OCEAN TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC, AND THE OBSERVED ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION ACROSS THE PACIFIC INDICATE THAT LA NINA CONDITIONS EXIST. IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH LA NINA ARE LIKELY DURING THE AUTUMN, WINTER AND SPRING MONTHS.

THE SEASONAL OUTLOOK FOR NDJ 2011-12 SHOWS ENHANCED CHANCES FOR ABOVE NORMAL SEASONAL MEAN TEMPERATURE FOR THE SOUTHWEST, THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS, SECTIONS OF THE CENTRAL GREAT PLAINS, AND SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. BELOW-NORMAL TEMPERATURES ARE FAVORED FOR SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE FLORIDA PENINSULA, NORTHERN SECTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS AND NORTHERN ROCKIES AND MUCH OF SOUTHERN ALASKA.

It is worth noting that Metro Atlanta has now experienced three consecutive winters with significant 3 inch+ snowfalls, you have to go back to 1892 to 1895 to find the same thing.

According to Klause Wolter of the CDC: “The current rank of the MEI has dropped further from 16th last month to 13th this month, just a little weaker than moderate La Niña rankings. The 2010-11 portion of this La Niña event had been classified as strong (top 6 rankings since 1950) from July-August 2010 through March-April 2011, tied with 1975-76 for 2nd place in terms of strong duration, and only behind 1955-56 (15 months).

ENSO is comprised of both El Nino and La Nina and La Nada or neutral phases. El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most important coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon to cause global climate variability on interannual time scales. Here we attempt to monitor ENSO by basing the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) on the six main observed variables over the tropical Pacific. These six variables are: sea-level pressure (P), zonal (U) and meridional (V) components of the surface wind, sea surface temperature (S), surface air temperature (A), and total cloudiness fraction of the sky (C).